Savvy diners are flocking to an Asian restaurant chain

Busaba Eathai has been serving affordable, authentic Thai food to London’s exacting diners since 1999, when the first restaurant opened on Soho’s Wardour Street.

Today, queues at its restaurants still stretch around the block. Fans of Busaba Eathai’s signature dish, the Thai calamari, post online their attempts to recreate the recipe on Epicurious.com.

“We sell our calamari by the truckload, even after 10 years,” said Joel Falconer, the company’s development director. “This sort of loyalty and longevity is amazing in this business.”

The brainchild of noodle king Alan Yau, famed for the Wagamama and Hakkasan restaurant chains, Busaba Eathai ticked along with just three sites until the business was bought by Phoenix Equity Partners in 2008. Busaba Eathai now has 10 sites, and all but one is in London. Last year, the company turned over £21m.

Mr Yau remains a shareholder and board member, but it is Mr Falconer who is tasked with doubling the size of the business to 20 restaurants in the next three years.

“We’re looking to develop three or four new sites, focusing on Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol,” he said.

This is no small ask. All of Busaba Eathai’s food is made fresh on site, with no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Scaling this kind of business is tricky, said Mr Falconer. “And we refuse to compromise on quality.”

The real secret to the brand’s enduring appeal is its authenticity. “We have at least four Thai chefs in every Busaba kitchen,” said Mr Falconer. “We can and do train our own chefs, but when it comes to truly understanding the flavours and culture, there are some things you can’t teach.”

In order to expand, Busaba Eathai will have to bring in more than 40 new Thai chefs from south-east Asia. Under the Government’s current visa rules, this poses a serious challenge. “It will be extraordinarily difficult,” said Mr Falconer. “The visa language requirements mean that our chefs need a certified level of English. We’re actually having to coach people in Thailand to help them get over here.”

Mr Falconer refuses to compromise on this point, however. “Consumers have never been more sophisticated,” he said. “They can spot poor imitations.”

Maintaining the quality of the brand goes beyond making good food, however. To maintain its credibility, Busaba Eathai does almost no discounting, a practice used by many other high street restaurants as a means of filling empty tables.

“It’s easy to win business with heavy promotion and heavy discounting, but you don’t win a reliable customer,” he said. “And our average spend is £17 per head which is pretty good for London, unless you’re eating fast food.”

Busaba Eathai has benefited from the recent downturn as savvy diners traded down their usual expensive restaurant meal for something more affordable.

“That was a real challenge as we had to up our game in terms of service and quality,” admitted Mr Falconer. “We had to be as good as the restaurants charging three times the price.”

Busaba Eathai was founded on democratic principles. All the diners eat at communal tables; there are no bookings and it’s first come, first served.

“This was revolutionary when we started and now everyone’s at it,” said Mr Falconer. “But I’m a firm believer that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

These principles are also at play within the company itself. Busaba Eathai is committed to promoting internally and invests a lot of cash in training.

Mr Falconer himself is a product of this system. He joined the business 11 years ago as an assistant manager and has climbed up through the ranks. Staff retention is particularly tough in the restaurant business and by investing in training, the company hangs on to its employees far longer than most.

“We don’t just do the usual hospitality training, we also try to involve our people in the development of the business,” said Mr Falconer. “Restaurant staff are only waiters when they are at Busaba, but outside this job they can have other careers. Some are actors, some are photographers, artists or musicians. We want them to use all these skills in the business.”